General Electric and Siemens are aggressively trying to steal the top spot in the wind turbine industry from Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems.
China's Sinovel Wind hopes to be number one in the world in five years, says AMSC's Greg Yurek
But so are China’s emerging suppliers. And with the domestic Chinese market a captive playground, they have reason to be confident.
More evidence of this confidence was apparent in Greg Yurek’s discussion Thursday of Sinovel Wind Co.’s prospects. Yurek, CEO of American Superconductor, supplies electrical components to China-based Sinovel and held a second-quarter conference call to detail his company’s strong financial results.
He said the growth was in large part due to his business with Sinovel and that more expansion will follow.
Sinovel supplied 23 percent of the Chinese market in 2008 and so far this year captured 40 percent of orders. That should make it the fifth largest supplier of wind turbines in the world, he said. The company aims to be number one in the world in five years, said Yurek, who met with Sinovel leaders during a trip to China last week.
The company has already begun to ship internationally and is setting up operations in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Because of American Superconductor’s Sinovel contract, “all signs appear upward for our wind power systems,” he said. The signs also appear to be pointing up for China.
